Progressive 'influencers' claim they've been detained and questioned over anti-Trump content

"It happened," said progressive online political commentator Hasan Piker on Sunday in a cryptic post on the social media site X—one that suggested he wasn't altogether surprised when he was detained for several hours by border agents at a Chicago airport after flying back to the U.S. from France.

He explained to his 1.5 million followers later that he had been stopped by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents "for additional questioning."

"I'm out, it wasn't that bad," said Piker. "Very strange experience overall though."

Piker shares his commentary primarily on YouTube and the streaming platform Twitch, and detailed the ordeal for his followers on both platforms.

The questions over the two-hour period suggested that the Trump administration has been following Piker's commentary, which has recently included vehement criticism of U.S. support for Israel as it bombards and starves the people of Gaza.

"They straight up tried to get something out of me that I think they could use to basically detain me permanently," Piker said. "[The agent] kept saying stuff like, do you like Hamas? Do you support Hamas? Do you think Hamas is a terror group or a resistance group?"

Piker shared his story as TikTok creator Savannah Pinder, who makes anti-Trump videos and clothing, said publicly that she had been detained at Miami International Airport after passing through Global Entry.

Pinder was taken to several different screening rooms and questioned about her work, travel history, and her father's citizenship status. Her father was born in Panama and became a U.S. citizen. Pinder, is a U.S. citizen and was born and raised in the United States.

"They asked me to provide my social media accounts for them to go through my TikTok, my Snapchat, my Instagram, and my Facebook, as well as show them how much I was making daily on TikTok," Pinder said. "If you are a United States citizen, you still have the chance of being detained coming back into the United States right now."

Journalist Séamus Malekafzali, whose work has been published in The Nation, The Intercept, and other publications, said he has had several experiences like the one described by Piker at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

"Been pulled into secondary screening many times and O'Hare CBP had the most involved and specific questions about Gaza for me by far," said Malekafzali.

Ari Cohn, lead counsel for tech policy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said the incidents show that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP "are the 'enemies domestic' that federal officials swear an oath to defend against."

"No U.S. citizen should be detained by law enforcement, at the border or anywhere, because of their protected speech," said Cohn.

Piker said he believes border agents are detaining and questioning commentators and journalists "to try to create an environment of fear, to try to get people like myself or at least like others that would be in my shoes, that don't have that same level of security, to shut the f--- up."

The incidents follow the abductions by federal immigration agents of foreign student protesters whom the Trump administration has pushed to deport for speaking out against U.S. support for Israel and expressing support for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Immigration agents "flagging and detaining one of the U.S.'s largest left-wing voices for their political opinions while the Trump administration suggests they might suspend habeas corpus does not portend well for the future," said lawyer and writer Alex Peter.